Abstract

In order to feed the increasing population of Bangladesh, priority was given to produce more food in terms of grain through intensification of land usage. As a result, the immediate objective of more grain production have been achieved and grain (especially rice) production has increased manifold. For a shorter period, Bangladesh has attained self sufficiency in food (rice) production. On the contrary, over extraction of soil nutrients was followed in this food production strategy which includes introduction of various HYVs and hybrids, and using higher doses of chemical fertilizer and pesticides. In addition, the increased use and increased price of agricultural inputs (fertilizer, pesticides, irrigation, etc.) resulted in much higher production cost day by day. The scenario is that though the grain production has been increased many times, the farmers who produced crops became marginalized. In this context, conservation agriculture (CA) is becoming increasingly important in overcoming the problems of declining agricultural productivity both in developing and developed world. Conservation agriculture offers a powerful option for meeting future food demands and contributing in sustainability of agriculture and rural development. Farmers (CA adopters) and other stakeholders who are new or are at the initial stages of converting to CA require tangible evidence on the benefits and impacts of CA. It is necessary to know whether CA significantly increases productivity and food security for their families or not. It is also a crucial question to the CA adopters whether CA helps them to save production costs and generate income or not. Based on the above discussion, the main objective of this paper is to investigate the present status of CA practiced by the farmers in Bangladesh.